The immune system recognizes foreign antigens and orchestrates a coordinated response involving multiple cell types that results in eliminating the foreign antigens or the pathogen or cell that expresses the foreign antigens. The immune system is crucial for protection from invading microorganisms, including but not limited to bacteria, viruses, and parasites and surveillance for and removal of abnormal or mutated cells (cancer). This system also provides an obstacle in therapeutic interventions by reaction to insertion of medical devices into the body or transplantation of heterologous organs or cells.
In addition to the baseline functions of the immune system in protecting the host animal, there is great promise for modulating the immune system for the benefit of treating disease. In this regard, harnessing the patient's own immune system to attack and treat the patient's cancer can be a very promising therapeutic approach for many different types of cancer.
Despite recent successes of immunotherapy for treatment of cancer, the response of human tumors is variable among individuals and in those where it works, it is often only partially successful.
There is a need, therefore, for approaches that can enhance the ability of immunotherapies to treat cancers.